Here's the scene; This monster ran up, kicked Ally repeatedly in the sides, while Cheryl(the handler) was trying to pull her away from him. He followed them. Ally went into pancake mode on the first kick, according to Cheryl, so Cheryl had to drag this 80 lb dead weight dog away from the man. He followed; grabbed Ally around the neck, picked her up by her neck, straddled her, & proceeded to punch her repeatedly in the face. He ended up facing away from Cheryl, who ran to them, grabbed Ally by her hips which were between this guy's legs, & tried to pull her away, screaming "She's old & blind! Let her go!" This guy never stopped punching Ally but said "If you can't control your dog I will." By then the techs from the shelter & a few people in the crowd recovered from the shock of seeing this, & tried prying this guy's arm away from Ally. They said it was almost like he came to his senses, dropped Ally, & walked off saying something about his gun.
It seems like he thought Ally was one of those horrible monster PIT BULLS (eye roll) that eat children & small animals (get the sarcasm?), & for his own twisted personal reasons, had to teach poor old Ally a lesson. She WAS in her zebra costume, so all he saw was an 80 lb. brindle dog who had gotten in a fight with a little poodle. I'm just so disgusted that someone like that could have made it a point to attend a function where there were dogs of every size & shape EVERYWHERE. And when he & the woman he was with walked off, they didn't have a dog with them.
A friend of ours said "Can you imagine what his wife/girlfriend/significant other has to deal with every day?"
As for blaming the flexi lead instead of the owner, & the proposal to ban them, the owner of the poodle was not paying any attention to what her dog was doing. When dogs are on flexis they can inch out that lead, & when their owners are like this one, they get way out beyond the reach of the owner. The leads are usually very fine, & can get wrapped around fingers, legs, etc. & do a great deal of damage. In my experience, flexi lead users just don't react & pull in the leash like they would with a regular leash. On the rare occasions our dogs are at the end of their 6 ft leash, if I want them back quickly I grab the leash with my other hand & drag them in while I walk up to them. Flexi lead owners never seem to think of that. So they don't have the control they should. Flexis are banned at AKC functions if you read the rule book, although many people still use them when they're walking their dogs outside the building or ringside.
On another note, I give Cheryl every bit of credit I can. She got Ally down on the ground when Ally had the poodle so Ally couldn't shake the poodle & do more damage; she screamed for help & tried her very best to get Ally away from the man. I've been in violent situations before; it's easy when everything's over to say "you should have done this", or "you could have done that". But unless you're in the thick of it, hind sight is only 20/20 vision. It doesn't do a damned thing for the moment.
And I still maintain that if Luann & I were just a few minutes faster getting there, we probably would have been in jail, & that man would have been in pieces. But Ally would not be sore today.
And that, my friend, is not bluster.
I still don't know how I managed to keep my cool and not punch out the 5 teeth she had left in her mouth. People just don't understand that our dogs are like siblings to us. I often tell people that they shouldn't fear my dog, but me. I don't have a family and I'm not buying a dog to protect me. I bought a friend, whose protector is ME. People just don't get it.
